Justice Department Unit To Probe Mortgage-Backed Securities

The U.S. government has dispatched 55 prosecutors, FBI agents and analysts to a new financial crimes enforcement unit focusing on home mortgage abuses that fueled the 2008 economic collapse. For the first time since the crisis, federal investigators will be joined by state law enforcement officials as part of a working group that will launch what has been described as the “broadest, deepest investigation” into the wrongdoing that almost destroyed our nation’s economy.

The unit, first referenced last month by President Obama in his State of the Union message, is expected to dig deeper into the causes of “massive market failures” that, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, continue to harm homeowners. When announcing the probe, the Attorney General said that he has no doubt that this will improve the government’s ability “to recover losses, to prevent fraud, to bring abuses to light and to hold those who violate the law accountable.”

The new effort will involve a new collaboration of federal and state officials with collective authority to investigate abuses in all aspects of the financial services industry, including the packaging, selling and valuing of residential mortgage-backed securities. Residential mortgage-backed securities are the huge investment packages of what turned out to be near-worthless mortgages that bankrupted many investors and contributed to the nation’s 2008 financial crisis.

Investigators recently issued civil subpoenas to 11 financial institutions, and I understand there will be “more will follow.” Bringing full enforcement resources to bear will help expose abuses and hopefully will hold violators accountable. It’s believed information sharing between federal and state investigators should produce more far-reaching results. Hopefully those who have violated any criminal laws will be prosecuted and punished. The collapse in value of mortgage-backed securities resulted in unprecedented losses and badly hurt a tremendous number of people.